Jordan's health ministry on Monday, August 20, said it halted the sale of the anti-cholesterol treatment drug Baycol/Lipobay, which has been linked with the deaths of 52 people in other parts of the world.
A health ministry official told Petra news agency that orders were handed out to pharmacies and hospitals across the kingdom to stop selling the drug since August 13. Patients who had been using the medicine were asked to get in touch with their doctors to obtain an alternative drug.
The German drugs and chemical group Bayer withdrew the drug from the market on August 8 after revealing that it might have dangerous side effects. But company chairman Manfred Schneider said in an open letter printed as a paid advertisement in German newspapers Monday that there was "at the moment no evidence" that use of Baycol/Lipobay had caused the death of patients. ― (AFP, Amman)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
